May Sunday

Welcoming the Brighter Half of the Year

Celebrating Art, Nature & Community
with events in Glenbower Wood & at Greywood Arts, Killeagh Cork

Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Cork County Council & Youghal Credit Union.

See our 2025 festival highlights here:

LOOKING BACK: May Sunday Festival 2023 Art Trail

Click here to see more images from the 2023 Art Trail!

LOOKING BACK: Our May Sunday Festival 2022 was full of music, dancing and fun – see the video below for the event highlights.

HISTORY

Glenbower Wood is situated on what used to be the estate of the De Cappell Brooke family in the village of Killeagh, in East Cork. In the 1830s, De Cappell Brooke began making improvements to his home as well as the land surrounding. After the improvements had been completed, De Cappell Brooke invited the entirety of the community to celebrate on the first Sunday in May. This became a yearly event known as May Sunday. It was the only day of the year on which the Wood was open to the public. The date also, perhaps not so coincidentally, coincides with ancient Druid “Fertility Rite” that would have been celebrated on the same date with hopes for a fruitful year and the Feast of Our Lady.

In the 1920s, the festival became very popular, spilling out of the Wood and onto the main street. It was a colourful event which featured music, dancing, food, and many other activities. Unfortunately, in 2001 the festival was unable to proceed due to Foot & Mouth disease. After a nearly 20-year hiatus, Greywood Arts revived some of the May Sunday traditions, placing the emphasis back on the festival’s origin in Glenbower Wood. In 2018, a reimagined version of the festivities celebrated local creativity, history and ecology through a programme devised in collaboration with artists and community groups, and supported by Cork County Council. Building on the success of the revived festival, the activities expanded in 2019 – and in 2020 the festival was once again cancelled – this time due to Covid-19. 2021 saw our first Art Trail as a Covid-safe way of marking the transition to summer in Glenbower. With restrictions lifted, 2022 celebrated live performance. 2023 was our biggest endeavour yet, with live events and an Art Trail spanning the first two weeks of May.

2018 & 2019 Festival Archive at www.creativekilleagh.ie